Bucks Eye New Arena Plan To Be Ready For End Of Bradley Center Lease In '17

The Bucks have told NBA Commissioner David Stern that the franchise "will have a plan that includes a new arena when the team's lease at the BMO Harris Bradley Center expires" on Sept. 30, 2017, according to Don Walker of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Stern on Friday said, "The Bucks came to us and said we will have a plan that will have a new arena at the end of this extension of this lease. 'And will you please give us an extension and approve it?' And we did." The lease extension, reached last fall, is the "longest lease between the arena and the franchise in more than 10 years and the first multi-year extension" since '07. But what was "not entirely clear was whether the lease extension constituted a deadline of sorts for the Bucks." Bradley Center BOD Chair Marc Marotta on Friday said that the board is "cognizant of the timeline of the lease." Marotta said the lease and the commitment of $18M from key members of the business community to the Bradley Center "has always been viewed as a bridge to the future toward a modern facility." Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce President Timothy Sheehy said that he "plans to form a task force of MMAC officials to discuss what comes next in the discussion of a proposed arena" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/20).